


our hearts (beat out of time; fall back in line)

by assassinactual



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 10:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17526734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assassinactual/pseuds/assassinactual
Summary: They meet as teenagers, and connect in a way neither of them have before. Years later, though they haven't always followed the same path, the connection is still there, and they both find themselves working for the Machine...A high school AU told in flashbacks, in parallel with a somewhat different version of the present-day events of the show.(Previously titledI'll cover you in moonlight.)





	our hearts (beat out of time; fall back in line)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> work and chapter titles both from in the summertime by the rural alberta advantage.

**Bishop, August 2007**

 

There’s an abandoned drive-in just outside town.

It’s a neglected, desolate place. Off the main roads, and just far enough out that almost no one remembers it’s even there.

Past the busted gates in the overgrown chain-link fence is a bare concrete pad that once held the ticket booth. The lot is still mostly bare, with sparse grass and wildflowers poking through the hard-packed gravel here and there. Off to one side, now almost lost in the trees, is the decrepit shell of the concession building. Over it all, rising out of a clump of scraggly bushes, looms the skeletal frame of the screen.

Sitting in Sameen’s truck, parked in the middle of the open space, the setting sun behind it casts a crooked grid of shadows and light over them. Brilliant golden orange contrasting with grey-blue shadows, then quickly fading away.

This is one of Sameen’s places.

Like her bedroom or the trail out behind her house where she runs or the little moments in between their classes. Sameen is by no means a loner, but she does value solitude. More and more, she has been letting Root in to share the solitude with her. With little fanfare, but Root understands the significance.

In these spaces they talk, and they share things neither of them really shared with anyone else. When they started spending time together like this Root did her best to respect Sameen’s boundaries and not make her uncomfortable. She quickly discovered that given the right circumstances, and if you really listen to and try to understand what she’s saying, Sameen can be surprisingly talkative and open.

She’s also surprisingly perceptive of Root’s moods. She’s sensed a shift and has been shooting glances at her since they pulled off the highway. Now, sitting in silence in the parked truck, she’s pretending to be interested in something on her phone to give Root space to gather her thoughts.

“Do you ever want to just,” Root says slowly, “keep driving? Just… leave? Not to go anywhere in particular. Just get out of here.” She stares down at her hands, fiddling with her watch as she speaks.

This is an idea she’s always had. Once an abstract thought as she watched freight trains rumbling past her house or passengers boarding a train at the town’s little station to be carried off to some big city she imagined as a child. She’s never had the means to actually do it, and the last couple years school has been going well and being something dangerously close to happy with Sameen, she hasn’t thought about it much. But Sameen having her own car and sometimes gas money to actually go places has sparked it again recently.

“No,” Sameen says flatly. She turns off her phone and drops it on the seat between her legs, giving Root her full attention.

This is more of the openness Sameen shows her. Root appreciates it for what it is: Sameen being straightforward, honest, and not wrapping herself up in false pleasantry. Sameen has said – and Root mostly believes her – that it doesn’t really bother her when people are put off by her manner. (She just shrugged, and said “I’m not going to bother trying to talk to people who don’t want to listen.”) But it bothers Root.

“I mean,” Shaw continues, “This place does kinda suck. But I just gotta finish school, then figure out where want to go and what I want to do, then I’m gone. Plus,” she adds, as if an afterthought, “you’re here, so it’s not all that bad.”

Sameen has – not a plan, really. A direction. She could, in Root’s (perhaps somewhat biased) opinion, do just about anything. They’ve talked about it before. The two things that come up most are medicine, and joining the Marines, like her father.

Root briefly meets Sameen’s eyes, and gives her a little smile. Then she looks away, focusing on the backlit hulk of the drive-in screen. “And what about me?” she asks. She’s never really thought of her future in concrete terms, never planned much beyond being gone.

Sameen scoffs. “You glued yourself to me, remember? Don’t think you’re just gonna get rid of me now. I’ll drag you with me if I have to.” She says it jokingly, but Root can hear the sincerity underneath. It’s something Sameen hasn’t voiced this explicitly before. The chance of a future for them beyond whatever this is now, and almost a commitment.

Naturally, rather than pursue this any further right now, she deflects.

“How about we start that movie now?” Sameen accepts this almost immediately, nodding and hopping out of the truck.

These evenings out here have become almost regular for them. The first time Sameen brought her to the drive-in was to watch a meteor shower. It was one of the first times She had let in on something that was  _hers_ , and though she put on a casual front Root had seen how important it was to her. After that, they started coming out here and watching movies on Root’s laptop in the bed of Sameen’s truck. Root calls them  _dates_ , which Sameen usually rolls her eyes at, Root knows she enjoys this time alone together too.

Sameen usually leaves it to Root to pick movies. Tonight, it’s an action movie that Root knows she’ll like. But sometimes she’ll chose something she wants to see, or Sameen just won’t be interested. She won’t complain though, she’ll be content to simply sit there beside Root, staring up at the stars or watching Root.

Tonight, though, it’s Root who has little interest in the movie. The shooting and explosions are fine, but the one-dimensional hero is spouting off far too many cheesy quips for her liking.

Sameen’s attention is fixed on the screen, even when grabs for a snack or takes a drink. She scoffs now and then, which Root knows is a sign she’s taken note of some inaccuracy, likely with the weapons or the science. She also knows that it means they’ll have a discussion about this at some point, which she looks forward too. Sameen Shaw talking physics or firearms is  _hot_.

At some point, while watching Sameen watch the movie, she nods off.

When she wakes, the computer is off, the sky is black and full of stars, and Sameen’s face is above her. She is breathtakingly beautiful as always. But especially now, half in shadow and half lit, her features thrown into sharp relief in the moonlight.

“You need to get back to your place tonight?” Sameen asks, her voice just above a whisper.

Root just shakes her head. She doesn’t trust herself to speak yet. Muddled by sleep and dangerously close to saying explicitly something she’s still afraid Sameen will be uncomfortable with.

“Wanna stay with me?”

Root nods.

Sameen stares at Root, and it feels like she’s looking right through her. “Stop overthinking it, dummy.” Then she gives Root the tiniest of smiles, leans in, and kisses her lightly on the forehead. “Come on, let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was just one of a few random ideas about high school shoot that I had, but uh... it may actually be going somewhere. not really exactly as a high school au technically, more like background to a somewhat different version of the canon storyline with a lot of flashbacks to this. honestly all I really have right now is like 5k words of dialogue and random scenes, so idk at this point. this one works by itself though.


End file.
